Election Commission (EC) will assign an election symbol to National Citizen Party (NCP) if the party fails to select one from the EC’s approved list, EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed said on Monday.

“I have no information suggesting any change in the Commission’s earlier position. The Commission had said it will allocate a symbol on its own consideration,” he told reporters during a press briefing at Nirbachan Bhaban in the capital.

His remarks came in response to a question about the NCP’s request for the ‘Water Lily’ symbol. Akhtar Ahmed said a notification will soon be published in newspapers listing registered political parties along with the symbols allocated to them.

Roadmap progress

Discussing the EC’s electoral roadmap, the senior secretary said about 90 to 95 percent of the Commission’s action plans have already been completed. “If two pending tasks are finished this week, the implementation rate will reach 100 percent,” he said.

The two pending areas involve the registration of political parties and election observer organisations.

Regarding political party registration, he said the EC has identified 22 parties as potentially eligible and has sought additional field information. “InshaAllah, we’ll complete this process within this week,” he added.

The Commission is also set to finalize the registration of local election observation groups by this week after resolving related complaints.

Akhtar Ahmed said the slight delay was not a cause for concern, adding that it had simply “created urgency for the Commission to complete the tasks soon.”

No proposal for referendum

Responding to a question about a possible referendum, the EC official clarified that no formal proposal or communication has been received. “There’s no information on any referendum at the Election Commission as of now. Since no data or proposal has reached us, it would be inappropriate to make any assumption on this matter,” he said.